25 Feb '10

“This involved putting Britons into poorly paid, backbreaking jobs – those more commonly filled by immigrants – around Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. Like Damages, the documentary raised more questions than it answered.”

Virginia Blackburn, Daily Express

“The English candidates were all excellent on the theory of a work ethic, less sound on the practice.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent

“It was embarrassing to watch the men sent into the potato factory deliberately claim that they couldn’t pronounce a foreigner’s name, especially when that person’s name was ‘Yuri’.”
Tim Teeman, The Times

“It was hard not to suspect as you watched the infuriating dozen, stunned by the prospect of physical labour, resentful of any advice, childish and utterly unmotivated by the presence of a television crew….that the natives might just be revolting.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“One episode in and my Damages habit has kicked in all over again.”
Tim Teeman, The Times

“Unlike most British crime series, which can rarely sustain a storyline beyond a single two-hour episode, this twisting and turning plot was nowhere near worked through by the end of the episode.”
Virginia Blackburn, Daily Express

“It is too early to tell whether Damages has completely returned to form – even he parlous second series began well – but the signs look good and Close in particular looks fabulous. A walking masterclass – well, in everything.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“With canny opportunism, the producers have seized on the carcass of the Bernie Madoff affair for a season three storyline about a Ponzi-scheme fraudster called Louis Tobin.”
Tom Sutcliffe, The independent

“The story of Luna, a killer whale stuck in Nootka Sound in British Columbia. Thoughtful, poetic, sensitive, but dull. We learnt nothing about the science of human and animal interaction, about why Luna formed the connection he did.”
Tim Teeman, The Times